Cheap and easy EKET shelf inserts. No cutting required.

Contributor·August 20, 2020

Shelving

·7 Comments·3 mins read

Use this other IKEA item to make inserts for your EKET shelves.

While building an EKET wall on my home office, I noticed that IKEA does not have versions with internal shelves.

I checked IKEA Hackers and found a hack that involved making holes and cutting MDF plates.

However, I wanted a more straightforward solution and found it by chance while browsing around the store!

I noticed the VARIERA family has metal shelf inserts that are exactly 32cm / 12 5/8 ” wide, and that is the EKET internal width.

I took a sample at the store and tested it on an EKET displayed there; it matched perfectly.

But I was not satisfied, because the legs of the shelf would not look particularly good when shown on the glass doors. I bought some sets to test home anyway.

EKET shelf and VARIERA inserts — a match!

When I got home, I was surprised to see they fit really tight. (I almost thought I had made a mistake).

However that was actually a blessing in disguise — they fit so tight that I did not need to mount the legs on them!

Just needed a bit of brute force to position them in the correct place. I am just displaying some action figures on them, so they are not bearing a lot of weight.

If you want to be sure they will not fall, you can just drill some holes on the EKET, under the inserts. Then, mount a wooden peg (or even use the included VARIERA screws).

Or of course, you can also install the VARIERA legs, but I do not think they look good.

The VARIERA shelves are sold in 2 depths: 13cm / 5″ depth, or 28cm / 11″ depth. Just pay attention to the depth of your EKET, the bigger shelf will not fit on the 25cm / 9″ deep EKET. 🙂

I am also including here a photo of my complete home office; I think everything on it came from IKEA, asides from the figures and books – even the plants 🙂